Not only one of the most in demand jazz and influential drummers in the world today, Jeff is also renowned for his unique compositions. “WATTS” shares 10 tracks of his creative works flavoured with spectacular improvisations, swing, sarcasm, politics, irony and percussive finesse. Pittsburgh-born, Brooklyn-based drummer/composer/bandleader Jeff “Tain” Watts burst onto the scene in the eighties with Wynton and Branford Marsalis. He has since distinguished himself as the most influential and innovative drummer of his generation, a valued sideman and recording artist.  The title of the CD refers to the leader’s last name with corresponding cover art of the Watts Towers symbolising the infamous Los Angeles race riots of the mid sixties, hometown of the mercurial bassist/composer Charles Mingus.

Watts on WATTS “I started to write things for more than one lead voice and that kind of led me into doing a predominantly piano-less record.” Watts says. “I wanted to hear these musicians in that setting, with more room to roam. I was inspired by [the record] Charles Mingus Presents Charles Mingus – that piano-less quartet. The more research I did, I just liked where he was coming from. I grew up during the Civil Rights Movement. I remember the riots in Pittsburgh, in Watts, and around the country when I wasn’t even listening to jazz. I heard that feeling through the music of Curtis Mayfield, James Brown, Hendrix and Sly Stone. Mingus’ pieces represented the jazz expression of a vibration that was going on in art, and the United States, in general.”

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